Flexible Grid Project

Our nation’s distribution grids have not changed significantly since the days of Thomas Edison. These aging and outdated grids will limit our ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide reliable and secure energy, and sustain leadership in green jobs. We need to encourage utilities and regulators to invest in smarter, more flexible distribution grids that will allow us to move into the future.

Western Resource Advocates is a regional nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the West’s land, air, and water. WRA’s Energy Program works to reduce the environmental impacts of electricity production in the Interior West by fostering the transition of power production from environmentally harmful fossil-fuel technologies to renewable energy, energy efficiency and other clean resources, with a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the region’s power sector.

Over the next year, WRA will work in state and regional forums to maintain, and where possible expand, clean energy development. At the state level, this work will include maintaining and improving renewable portfolio standards; maintaining funding for energy efficiency programs as well as removing disincentives and securing incentives for these programs; securing utility commitments and regulatory approvals for coal plant retirements; and securing future clean energy investments through utility resource planning processes.

One of our new initiatives is called the “Flexible Grid Project”. Our goal is to work with utilities to improve electric grids to take advantage of local generation from a variety of sources, manage local storage devices including electric vehicles, and manage customer loads in an intelligent manner. The project will focus on making grids more reliable and cost effective, and helping the utility industry modernize for the 21st century. We invite your support of the Flexible Grid Project.

2012 WRA Flexible Grid Proposal (pdf)

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